MDH

You're right, I did have unrealistic expectations heading into this season. I thought the team would put up 5 wins. I guess it's because I'm a glass is half full type of guy.

WTF is up with you ending every single post with ?

This team has so many holes at so many positions they can pretty much take the best available player in the 1st round. That being said they need to address the OL with a few day one picks. This, obviously, is all dependent on what the team does in FA.

I'm not making it sound like that reason alone is the reason we're not competitive. I'm saying that ownership and management aren't doing EVERYTHING they can to make the team better. Wilson shouldn't go pointing fingers at someone else if he's not doing everything he can do make the team better. Also, go back to my first post in this thread for a response on "who we could have gotten with the extra 10 million to make this team better." In addition to the info you'll find there I'd say they could have overspent on a few FAs this year, Pickett comes to mine and so does Bentley. If you're not going to spend up to the cap in a given year it doesn't really matter if a "player isn't worth it". The Bills could have frontloaded either of those players money into this year and had virtually the same cap situation that they currently do in subsequent years. Neither of these moves would have made the team much better this year, but it's a start in the right direction. Getting an extra quality player or two each offseason adds up quickly and pretty soon the team is competitive. You can't build the foundation of your team through free agency but you can certainly make your team incrementally better. Given the fact that there isn’t a huge discrepancy between good teams (in terms of talent) getting incrementally better can be quite beneficial.

You're right, JP is trying too hard to "make something happen." That's what leads to a lot of his mistakes. I'll agree the D isn't helping (hell, the entire team isn't helping) but that doesn't excuse JP's mistakes. All JP can worry about is himself, so he needs to make the best decisions he can and let everybody else on the team do the same. The moment he tries to make up for the rest of the team's deficiencies is when he's going to end up looking like a horrible QB. If JP wants to have a future in Buffalo he needs to stop worrying about the score of the game or how many points the Bills might need to win. He needs to simply make the correct decision with the ball on each and every snap. I agree with you about blindside hits but JP fumbles the ball pretty much EVERY time he get hit from the blindside. If he's in the middle of his throwing motion I can't blame him, but I CAN fault him if the ball is sitting there in his hands while he's looking down field. Sure, the OL that missed the block is also at fault but Losman has to hold onto the ball. He's turning into Dave Krieg. That being said, I don't know how many times I've seen JP totally blindsided this year with a virtually unblocked DE coming in for the kill. It's ridiculous and I'm surprised he hasn't been hurt yet.

Yeah, the Yankees, Red Sox and Braves haven't been consistantly good. It doesn't buy you a championship but if you spend wisely it gives you a chance at one most years. How do you hold together a good team if money doesn't matter? You'll end up being the Expos, a team that had one of the best farm systems around and could never hold onto their young talent. Again, I'm not saying simply spending will win you anything. But it gives teams an advantage. I'm really not sure how you could argue otherwise.

I think JP had some very good moments in the Detroit game and he started out well in the Pats game. In fact, if he'd just eliminate the costly turnovers, and do nothing more, I think people would be okay with his progress thus far. That being said turnovers are what determine games in the NFL. I'm willing to forgive him fumbling the ball if he's hit from the backside while in the middle of throwing a pass. I'm not willing to forgive his fumbles when he's simply sacked and loses the ball. This is becoming a bad trend and if it continues JP will have no future in the NFL, much less as a starting QB. No team can survive a QB that consistently turns the ball over. If he can fix his fumbling issue I think he'll be okay, if he can't then it'll be time to move on at the end of the season. I’m not really worried about JP passing the ball or even his pocket presence. He simply has to hold onto the ball when he’s sacked, period. As for when I’d put Nall in? I don’t know, I’d like to see JP get the season but if he keeps having trouble holding onto the ball like he has these past 3 weeks then it wouldn’t be a stretch to see Nall get the last 4 or so starts of the season.

Nobody said you can just throw money around. Obviously you have to spend the money wisely but it does matter how much money you spend. Do you seriously think the NFL would be as consistently competitive year in and year out WITHOUT a salary cap? A team that spends wisely and uses the entire cap is likely to be better than a team that spends wisely and uses only 80% of it.

You know, I agree with you for the most part John. The OL is horrid and JP looked pretty good early in the game. However he has GOT to learn to stop taking chances with the ball. He simply can't fumble the ball on every other sack. Instead of trying to escape and make a play he simply needs to protect the ball and take his sack. Sure, on occasion he'll make a spectacular play with his escapability, but more often than not it's going to end badly. Just take the negative play and punt the ball away.

Agreed, particularly on Ko. That being said Simpson is about as consistently late getting over as Vincent was last year and (hopefully) he'll get better whereas Vincent was only going to regress.

Does Ralph owe the fans a better effort? This team sits 10 million under the cap. While I don't expect that the Bills HAVE to spend that cash on free agents that aren't worth it they at least should spend much of it to extend some current Bills contracts and frontload them so the team has more money to spend in future years. I have patience for a young team learning new systems but I have little patience for a front office/ownership that doesn’t do everything in their power to be competitive. The salary cap only works to even the playing field if the teams spend up to it. .

We'll find out what kind of coach we have in Jauron in the next two weeks. Does he hit the panic button or does he stay the course? My guess is that Jauron starts JP all year and this report is purely speculative. If JP does get benched it had better be Nall who gets the starts. If Holcomb starts a game this year I might just end up in a JSP like rage.

With Spikes not fully recovered from his injury it could be legitimately argued that Schobel is the Bills best player (not counting kickers). I can think of only two other players on the team that you could make that statement about (Fletch and Clements…After last season I would have included McGee here but he’s sucked this year). I like Schobel quite a bit (and think he's underappreciated by most of the media) but you know you have a PoS team when he can be considered your best player.

I don't know if I'd go that far but I'd definitely like to see them open it up a bit in the red zone. The run, run, pass stuff is so predictable. At some point they have to throw the ball on first down in the RZ.

When I'm watching the games in high def at least I have one positive associated with my Sunday afternoons; my picture looks good!

That would be an optimist’s point of view.

The Phillies are my team in baseball. Nuff said.

I think there was a thread about this very topic a week or two ago. I don't recall if there was a solution posted but you should try searching old threads for it.

The Bills didn't win because I'm a fan. The teams I root for rarely f'in win. I should start rooting for the Pats...

Where's the puke icon when you need it?

On a related note I'm looking for ways to cancel the Buffalo Bills season. Does anybody know how I can do this?

So let me get this straight. When they give up 5 sacks they're JP's fault for holding onto the ball too long but when it's 2 it's not because JP got rid of the ball before getting hit? Bottom line is that sacks aren't how a OL is judged; it's pressures. How many QB pressures did the OL allow today? Entirely too many for my tastes (which is pretty much true every week). JP was horrible but I have no clue why you're attempting to excuse the OL.

Crumpler might be responsible for yet another loss for me as well...my opponent had him. Willie Parker sucked it up for my team this week, posting a massive 2 fantasy points for me. L. Coles wasn't far behind with a 5 point week. I still managed to put up 112 points but hold a tiny 7 point lead while my opponent has Plaxico going tomorrow night. I hope Burress pulls a groin while getting off the team bus.

Detriot proved last week they're a better team than the Bills.

11/5 - Green Bay L 11/12 - @ Indianapolis L 11/19 - @ Houston W 11/26 - Jacksonville L 12/3 - San Diego L 12/10 - @ New York Jets 12/17 - Miami L 12/24 - Tennessee W 12/31 - @ Baltimore L I thought they'd be 5-11 heading into the season. At this point I think I was being slightly optimistic. I see them only winning 2 more.